Your body and brain + trauma
Foundations
We all begin life with a foundation that we did not create or choose. It is based upon our family, economic opportunity, racial and ethnic heritage, and the degree to which we were exposed to either a safe or unsafe world and/or home. Exposure to an unsafe environment at a young age creates vulnerabilities or cracks in the foundation. When these cracks are not healed, a person will create mental models of the world and themselves that actually change how their brains respond in any given circumstance.
The majority of identified survivors of sexual exploitation are also survivors of complex trauma. Survivors of complex trauma had exposure to an unsafe world and/or home in the foundations of their story which was then exploited in childhood, in adolescence, and possibly even into adulthood. It is the purpose of Logos to create a space where these cracks can heal, where survivors of complex trauma can regain a sense of safety and agency in themselves and in their lives.
How Trauma Changes the Brain
Prolonged activation of the stress response results in:
Structural brain changes
Hypervigilance: Constantly scanning the environment for danger, a feeling of being on high alert. This taxes the nervous system and makes distinguishing between safe and unsafe difficult.
Increased Cortisol levels: This can cause chronic fatigue, migraines, sleep deprivation, decreased immune system and metabolism, depression, irritability, and more
Changes in someone’s responses to relationship
Hinders ones capacity for adversity:
Trauma narrows the “window of tolerance” as discussed below. This hinders ones ability to respond rather than react to a stressful or surprising situation. When one is outside their window, trauma reactions take over and one will lose the capacity to choose a response that is appropriate to the situation, environment, and who they desire to be in the world and more accurate to who they are.
Puts the mind on high alert and on guard:
When those who said they would protect and love you are the same ones that exploit and use you, a difficulty with trusting others is more than understandable. More than that, it is also very difficult for one to trust themselves after trauma. It is common for survivors to sabotage something good in their lives and even a positive relationship as a way to protect themselves from a very real sense that they are about to be hurt or used again.
